Quotes on Non Violence

...people think non-violence is really weak and non-militant. These are misconceptions that people have because they don't understand what non-violence means. Non-violence takes more guts, if I can put it bluntly, than violence. Most violent acts are accomplished by getting the opponent off guard, and it doesn't take that much character, I think, if one wants to do it.

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.

I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.

Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

Non-violence is not a quality to be evolved or expressed to order. It is an inward growth depending for sustenance upon intense individual effort.

I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.

Courtesy towards opponents and eagerness to understand their view-point is the ABC of non-violence.

In non-violence the cause has to be just and clear as well as the means.

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.

Non-violence exacts a very high price from one who practices it. But once you are able to meet that demand then you can do most things.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely non-violent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep non-violence as our goal and make steady progress towards it.

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.